1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus which performs recording by jetting droplets of liquid such as ink droplets from nozzles.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the known ink-jet recording apparatus, a plurality of nozzles formed in the ink-jet head are divided into four nozzle groups to align in the transport direction of a recording medium. During printing, ink droplets are jetted from the nozzles included in the nozzle groups to areas of the recording medium facing the nozzle groups, respectively, to perform a high-quality printing. Further, at the time right before the ink droplets are initially jetted from the nozzles forming nozzle groups, a preliminary discharge (flushing operation) is performed to maintain the nozzles by discharging thickened ink from the nozzles so as to keep a preferable state for the nozzles to jet the ink.
However, in the above described ink-jet recording apparatus, it is necessary to jet a considerably large amount of ink from the nozzles in the flushing operation in order to perform maintenance on the nozzles only by means of the flushing operation performed right before printing. As a result, non-printing ink consumption has to be increased.